Time Lapse Clips - Advice?

[T]

Hello.

Just a quick question, as I've noticed there is a lot of Arty people on this Forum. I've made some Time Lapse clips, & think they've come out pretty reasonable. However, I'd like some feedback on how they look as they currently stand.

I'd like to purchase a new Camera, to do these properly, but I don't know how to begin in shooting Time Lapse via a normal camera/Tripod setup?

Anyhow, here's the links:

London Eye

London Eye 2

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square 2

Trafalgar Square 3

Sealife London

Thanks!

 

[Alastair]

The London Eye ones are brilliant, I do however think you should properly mount the camera as it does seem to jerk around occasionally. How did you do these ones?

 

[T]

The London Eye ones are brilliant, I do however think you should properly mount the camera as it does seem to jerk around occasionally. How did you do these ones?

It was mounted via a simple, mini Tripod, for my iPhone. The only issue I encountered was that it kept Auto-focusing, whenever something significant changed. However, I didn't think it moved too much? May have been very slight movement by the wind, as the iPhone + Tripod do not exactly carry much weight!

The London Eye ones I love, also. However, in one of them, I couldn't have chosen a more scratched part of the capsule to setup from! Whoops!

 

[Alastair]

The London Eye ones are brilliant, I do however think you should properly mount the camera as it does seem to jerk around occasionally. How did you do these ones?

It was mounted via a simple, mini Tripod, for my iPhone. The only issue I encountered was that it kept Auto-focusing, whenever something significant changed. However, I didn't think it moved too much? May have been very slight movement by the wind, as the iPhone + Tripod do not exactly carry much weight!

The London Eye ones I love, also. However, in one of them, I couldn't have chosen a more scratched part of the capsule to setup from! Whoops!

Looks really good for the iPhone! I've tried some timelapse in the past - if you didn't know, most of the Canon S and G series cameras have timelapse functions built in. They're not too pricey either, and take excellent shots. I'd recommend a Manfrotto tripod w/pan/tilt head if you want to do some serious stuff - top build quality and will keep the camera as still as possible.

 

[James]

Manfrotto can be quite expensive. If you want something durable at a cheaper price I recommend Hama.

Ideally an SLR camera is best for good high quality time lapses, a small camera would work nicely - better than an iPhone at least (although you can do some amazing things with the iPhone camera).

Nice time-lapses mind, they look brilliant.

Oh, don't use built in time lapse features on cameras, as a photographer I always recommend that if you can do something manually, continue to do so (and look at different ways of developing your creations). Much like all other built in features on cameras for social use, they result in a drop of quality and no precision. While doing it manual does take longer, it is far more worth it to end up with a higher quality piece of work.

 

[Alastair]

Manfrotto can be quite expensive. If you want something durable at a cheaper price I recommend Hama.

Ideally an SLR camera is best for good high quality time lapses, a small camera would work nicely - better than an iPhone at least (although you can do some amazing things with the iPhone camera).

Nice time-lapses mind, they look brilliant.

Oh, don't use built in time lapse features on cameras, as a photographer I always recommend that if you can do something manually, continue to do so (and look at different ways of developing your creations). Much like all other built in features on cameras for social use, they result in a drop of quality and no precision. While doing it manual does take longer, it is far more worth it to end up with a higher quality piece of work.

It all really depends on what kind of timelapses you want to shoot, for how long they will last and the lighting conditions. You can't do timelapses on Canon's although I believe that Nikon's have it built in - so you'd have to buy an intervalometer. Also, whilst you could get really professional looking depth of field using something like a 50mm f/1.8 for timelapse, you are more restricted by focal length as prime lenses are fixed and can't be zoomed. It's all dependent on conditions, and DSLR's you'll find there is a lot of extra expense required for something that's much more simple on superzoom and bridge cameras like the Canon G series.